MERIDEN — A local father and his family partners have turned their vision for school safety into a business.
Tom Baggerio envisions his "Safe Pods" and safe doors systems in churches, resorts, casinos and everywhere that could be exposed to a threat.
“We’ve failed our children for way too long,” said Baggerio, the Co-Owner of Simply IV Safety. “The victims, their families, the communities at large deserve this from us.”
His started with a mini prototype in 2014 and then created a half scale model before he finished the Safe Pod. It’s a family owned venture.
“Connecticut based business. Connecticut manufacturing. Being able to create Connecticut jobs,” said Baggerio.
The Safe Pod is a bullet resistant refuge can be integrated into schools and businesses. It’s equipped with a 600 pound magnetic lock, a manual deadbolt, a battery backup, an air filtration system and integrated cameras, phones and tablets.
It’s manufactured locally by Logan Steel in Meriden.
Howard Lohman Jr., said, “It’s such a tragedy with things that are happening in today’s world that were just so happy to be a part of it helping them to produce right here in Connecticut from the very start to the finished product.”
The Safe Pod isn’t their only product, they also offer a ballistic door system with a sliding window door to keep people out of view.
Retrofitted quarter-inch bullet resistant steel plating along the wall would keep those sitting up against it. The wall is designed to make a shooters bullets shatter. “He has more of a chance of hurting himself,” said Baggerio.
Both products are integrated through a third-party app.
It’s a one touch system that will automatically notify that there is an active threat. It would have to be triggered by a user and could be easily activated with face scanning and fingerprint biometric technology.
The Safe Pod costs around $28,000 the door system is about $9,000. “There’s hundreds of millions of dollars that are already allocated toward school safety grants,” said Baggerio.
